Hanako Under Fire
by FunkyJ
Summary: This is my take on what happened before Hanako went to Yamaku, beginning with the night of the fire. Obviously, it is not pretty. It is extremely short. This is going to eventually get a very serious makeover.


It was like any other day in my house. Mom's cooking, Dad's reading the news (it seems like the stock action of all fathers), and I'm looking at the fire, dead tired. I've been up since 3:00 today, and it's closing in on 8:30. I decided that it would be best for me to go to bed. After all, what Mom is cooking is for later. It wouldn't matter anyway, because I don't think I would be able to do anything but go to my bed and sleep. I don't even think that I could make it to my bed. I manage to do so, and I fall asleep.

I awoke to a nasty smell. It smelled like burning plastic, burning wood, or...

BURNING!?

I quickly started to panic, as would other people would do when they know that there is an uncontrollable fire. Dad was trying to cool down the flames, and Mom stopped her cooking to protect me. I had no idea what to do. I was clutching my teddy bear and crying. I was too scared to do anything. This can't be happening. I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming!

It then hit me like a bullet: I'm not dreaming. This is a fire. This is me. This is the end of my life as I know it (and if I don't die from this, it will be the end of this chapter). Life is slowing down to show me what my story was. I don't want to see this. I'm only six. I want to live my own life!  
The fire grew, and it engulfed my father in a quick motion. We heard his screams, and slowly, we heard them die out, never to be heard again.  
"Dad!" I cried. Mom, however, couldn't speak when that happened. We know what has happened to him. He's dead. He couldn't survive being engulfed by the heat storm that was about to reach us: me and my mom.

"Hanako!" My mom cried out to me. "If this is the last day that I spend here on Earth, let me just say that I've always loved you!"

"I love you too!" I quickly cried back, awaiting doom to attack us. It was inevitable that at least one of us will die in this. I don't know who will be the unfortunate, and neither does my mom. However, my mom is contemplating about something...

The fire grew and roared at us. We were trapped, and there was absolutely nothing that I could do. The heat of the fire was getting to us. It was more discomforting than the hottest days of summer. We don't have any time left here.

"Hanako! Get down and I'll protect you!" My mother told me the instructions that if I followed, I would live. I did so, and she protected me as the last of the fire managed to engulf us.

"Mom!" I cried as I saw her slowly die from the flames.

"Itai..." She said. "Hanako, if I die from saving you, let me say that I will always look at you from Heaven..."

"Mom! No!" I cried, literally. "You're going to live, mom! For me?"

"I can't! The fire has weakened me..." She moaned, and ended the statement with a premature death rattle. Mom, too, was dead from the fire. I'm next to go in the cruel fire. It creeped up to me, and slowly gave its misery to me, the fire tantalized by wanting to hear my screams.  
My right middle finger was the first thing to enter the fire, proceeded by the rest of my hand. It felt like my hand was being cut off, layer of skin by layer of skin. I screamed in agony as it reached the rest of my arm. It was burnt as well, feeling like death was knocking. I was hearing whistles, and whether they be me or the firetrucks, it will be the last thing that I hear.

I painfully curl up into a ball, leaving my dead right arm where it was. The fire decided to crawl to the right side of my torso, where it grabbed ahold of my right thigh. I knew from there that I wouldn't be able to move anymore. This is it. The end of my life. My hand felt like nothing, as did my arm, and my leg felt like it was being brutally amputated without me being given anything like anesthesia "ITAI!" I scream. It hurts like hell, and it's only been three seconds since my middle finger was starting to burn.

As the fire travels up my rear, it starts to engulf the side of me as well as my face. "STOP! HELP! HELP! FIRE!" I start screaming rapidly. This is my cry for help. It is the end of what I know. This is the end of me.

I feel a sudden cold feeling on my right side. It stings like crazy and hurts, but I know that it means that I have been given one more chance at life, but now, as a burn victim. I don't know that yet, but as I've learned, that is what happens to me next.

I am lifted by two people and placed into a fancy car. An ambulance. I'm spending my time in the hospital. It ends a chapter of my life that I wish to still know: The days where I am happy.

I am splashed in a tub later on, and I see that nothing comes off except for a bit of my ear. It's not that much. I am given some kind of medication, and I am fed before falling asleep for the night.

I wake up, and get some breakfast. I don't remember what I had. I don't care to remember, either. I then fell asleep again; there were no other kids in the burn ward. When I woke up, I realized that my room is the only place that I could be in. There was nothing else that I can do except sleep and wait for the medication to come about. It was very boring and tedious. Many days passed as boring as this one, until the two-year three-month mark came around, where I could go to the library. There was nothing else that I could do, so I decided to read.

When I was reading, I could be anybody that I wanted to. I could be a pirate, or a queen, or something that isn't the burn victim that I am now. I enjoyed being what I wanted to be, but when I ended the book, I always realized what I am: the wounded gazelle.

Another interesting thing that happened is that I could go to an orphanage now. I decided to do so. I am sick of this hospital. I want to see people who might think positively of me. I have to bring my meds along with me, and I know that the people might be harsh at first over the scars on the right side, but I know that I'll be alright.

I was wrong about the Orphanage. Not only did I wait two more years because I had to be twelve, but when I finally got there, the people in the orphanage harassed my because of my right side. I heard it all. "Burn-girl." "Freak." "Monster." I heard worse, and I've heard (slightly) better things from them. When I was fourteen, I remember that I didn't take my meds for a bit, because I wanted to be with my family, not these jokers.

If there was one thing I did learn from the Orphanage, it's that nobody could be trusted as a friend. The closest person I had called me a freak. I don't even think anyone was close enough for me to call them close. I was the one who never got picked, whom was never wanted to be picked, who was never wanted.

It was my 15th birthday, and I was stumped. I was supposed to go to High School. That was going to be a whole lot of fun for me. Yeah, I'm going to a school where the people will be MUCH CRUELER THAN HERE IN THIS ORPHANAGE! It's going to be hell. Of course, this was also the day where I heard about Yamaku, a school for the physically disabled. There, I would still be a freak, but the other people will (sorta) know what it's like. I was instantly suckered into the idea, and told them that I don't have enough money for tuition because of my unfortunate tragedy nine years ago. It doesn't matter, anyway. I don't need an education with where I am in my life.

However, on that day, I was given the school uniform and was also given a free ride to Yamaku.

I hate schools. I'm too awkward to talk to anybody because of the scars on the entire right side of my body. I don't want to be excluded because of them, but yet, I don't want to be sheeped around for any reason, good or bad. I just want to be who I am: an avid reader who is too shy to talk to anybody.

My fear is not that nobody will be for me, but it is that everybody will be for me for all the wrong reasons. I'm only human; I don't deserve special treatment. On that note, I think that it would be nice to have a bit of dignity from my peers. Actually, no. I'm contradicting myself.

I'm going to do what I've became so good at doing: hiding.


End file.
